Many medical devices, particularly implantable medical devices, are provided, in sterilized packages. Such packaging typically includes a relatively rigid tray, for example, a thermoformed plastic tray, to hold the device, and a lid, for example, formed from Tyvek® (DuPont™), which is sealed about a perimeter of the tray and forms a relatively light weight, durable and selective barrier between the inside and outside of the tray; the lid may be peeled away to provide an opening through which the device may be dropped into a sterile field, without compromising the sterility of the device or the sterile field.
For medical systems that include more than one device, it is often necessary to evaluate a first device of the system prior to connecting the first device to another one or more devices of the system, which may be packaged in separate sterile packages. An exemplary system includes an implantable generator device and an implantable electrical lead, which couples the generator device to a body of a patient. Those skilled in the art are familiar with various types of implantable systems, ranging from cardiac and neurological stimulators to diagnostic pressure sensors, whose performance relies upon an effective interface between the one or more electrical leads of the system and a particular site within the body of the patient. To determine whether or not an effective interface can be attained as well as to verify the operability of the leads, it is prudent to evaluate the interface between the one or more leads and the patient's body, at one or more implant sites, using a “dummy” generator device, or what is typically called an analyzer. Using the analyzer, rather than the sterilized generator device, for pre-implant testing, can prevent an unnecessary removal of the device from its sterile packaging, if an effective interface between the one or more leads and the body cannot be attained. However, electronic circuitry of an analyzer may differ from that of an actual implantable generator device so that, in some situations, signals measured by the analyzer can differ enough from those measured by the actual device so as to limit the usefulness of the evaluation performed with the analyzer.